1. Child safety seat
(From Wikipedia, not Wikileaks… :-)
Child safety seats (sometimes referred to as an infant safety seat, a child restraint
system, a restraint car seat, or ambiguously as car seats) are seats designed specifically
to protect children from injury or death during collisions. Automobile manufacturers may
integrate child safety seats directly into their vehicle's design. Most commonly, these
seats are purchased and installed by consumers. Many regions require children defined by
age, weight, and/or height to use a governmentally approved child safety seat when riding
in a vehicle. Child safety seats provide passive restraints and must be properly used to be
effective.
As a result of accident statistics, it is required by law that children under the age of seven
be secured in safety seats made for children in all fifty states. Also, all states require
booster seats for children aged four to fourteen depending upon each individual child's
age, weight, height, and state. These laws are basic guidelines only and can differ state to
state, because each state has some variance in the laws.
Though there are hundreds of variations of makes and models in the world of child safety
seats, the materials used in the manufacturing process are basically the same across the
board. Factories in which the seats are put together receive loads of a tough plastic called
polypropylene in the form of tiny pellets. This tough plastic is very hard to crack, so it
only makes sense that it would be used to form the base of all child safety seats. This
plastic is universal in the make of all restraints made for children. A company by the
name of Indiana Mills is responsible for manufacturing the adjustment mechanisms and
buckles for most child safety seats. Foam makes up the padding of the individual seats,
while vinyl and fabrics are used to make up the covers for the seats as well as the
harnesses. Among all these products used to make one child safety seat, none are as
important as the labels each manufacturer prints according to Federal standards. Printing
of these labels is done by subcontracted printers of the manufacturer. These labels must
have a permanent place for storage in or on the safety seat and must withstand any tearing
so as to make any missing information obvious.
The process of manufacturing the safety seat is what brings all these components together
to form a restraint that will increase the safety of a properly restrained child in the case of
a motor vehicle accident. In the beginning, the polypropylene is put to use in molding the
shells of these seats. Since it arrives in tiny pellet form, these pellets must be melted
down and put into a mold of the desired shape of the seat. The seat then moves down an
assembly line. On this assembly line, all of the articles from the outside contractors and
suppliers are added to the mold. These additions include the foam padding, the fabric
covers, the harness, and any buckles or attaching mechanisms. The labels and instructions
are also attached at this time. Once past the assembly line, the product arrives at the
packing department, where the seats are wrapped in plastic and packed in cartons which
then gets stacked and stored for shipping once ordered.